1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, and, more particularly, to a memory card bezel for an apparatus, such as an imaging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Images taken by digital cameras are typically stored in a removable memory card associated with the camera. The removable memory card then may be loaded into a memory card reader, which is also referred to in the art as a memory card drive. The memory card drive may be formed integral with the imaging apparatus, such as a computer or printer, or may be a separate device which is configured to be attached to the imaging apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, examples of such removable memory cards include the Memory Stick™ (MS) card 10 developed by Sony Corporation, the Smart Media™ (SM) card 12, the Secure Digital (SD) card 14, the MultiMedia Card (MMC) 16 jointly developed by SanDisk Corporation and Siemens AG/Infineon Technologies AG, and the xD card 18 that is used, for example, with digital cameras available from Olympus.
Many of the various types of removable memory cards have a unique format, e.g., unique electrical configurations and mechanical dimensions. As used herein, reference to a memory card width (W) and height (H) refers to the dimensions of the card which affect its ability to be received in a card slot of the memory card drive. Accordingly, in this regard the length (L) of the memory card typically is not a critical dimension. In terms of width and height, for example, MS card 10 has a size of approximately 21.6 mm×2.85 mm and has either four conductive pins or ten conductive pins; SM card 12 has a size of approximately 37.2 mm×0.95 mm and has 22 conductive pins; SD card 14 has a size of approximately 24.2 mm×2.1 mm; MMC 16 has a size of approximately 24.2 mm×1.40 mm; and xD card 18 has a size of approximately 25.2 mm×1.75 mm.
As shown in FIG. 2, a multi-format memory card drive 20 is available that accommodates multiple types of memory cards, such as for example, any of MS card 10, SM card 12, SD card 14, MMC 16, and xD card 18. Multi-format memory card drive 20 includes a housing 22 that defines a single multi-format memory card slot 24 to receive the different types of removable memory cards. Multi-format memory card slot 24 includes a central region 26 of a first height and outer regions 28a, 28b of a second height. A plurality of electrically conductive contact areas 30 are disposed within the single slot for reading each of the types of cards that may be inserted into the single multi-format memory card slot 24.
While multi-format memory card drive 20, which can accommodate a plurality of types of removable memory cards, provides an overall convenience and a cost savings to a user by reducing the number of memory card drives that the user may need to purchase in order to read multiple card types, it is possible for a user to damage the mechanical and/or electrical features of the card and/or the memory card drive if the card is improperly inserted into multi-format memory card drive 20.